A Grain of Sea Salt

Chapter 1:

The window was banging as the shutters slammed against it repeatedly in the strong wind. Rain was pelting the roof, as it had been doing for hours. Occasional cracks of thunder would rip through the house at an ear splitting decible. Nick hid under his covers, desperatly trying to keep himself safe from the storm that was ravaging his quite, sea side hometown of Frazilsmith.

Nick was a young boy then, only 7 years old. His whole life was laid out for him. His parents were well known in the town and it was almost certain that one day he would become mayor or someone of great importance. Intelligent and determined, Nick seemed to have the inate skill to become a leader. But that was all about to change.

There was a loud crash but this time it came from the door. Nick gave a small scream and hid under the covers especially hard as the sound of footsteps could be heard entering the room. These steps weren't familiar though. They were heavy and didn't move through the room like his parent's.

"Well, well, well. Lookie what we got ourselves 'ere mates," said a gruff voice. A hand grabbed the top of the sheets and pulled down. There were three men standing in the room dressed in tatered shorts and grey or white t-shirts.

"Looks like the purty couple downstairs has a little purty boy."

"How much do you think it'd hurt to watch their little boy get taken away?" One of the men asked the others.

"More than what I had planned for them. Bwahaha!" The man shook the sheethed sword at his side. "Com' on little boy. Yer comin' wit us." He reached over and grabbed Nick at the hip.

"NO NO NO NO!" Nick tried to cling to his bed but he was dragged away from his safe spot. The look on his bound parents faces as the men walked out the front door could have broken anyone's heart but apparently these men's hearts had been lost to the cold sea a long time ago. They just snickered as they stepped out into the stormy night.

***

Nick found himself in a new bed the next morning. He looked around the room and was horrified because he realized that what had happened the night before was not a horrible nightmare but actually happened. He was sitting on a bed in the corner of an entirely metal room, the walls were an off white and the paint was chipping in a few places. There was a sink attached to the wall to his right and a door across from him. To his left was window and a small shelf. Almost too scared to move Nick stood up and looked out the window. There was no land around him, only water for miles and miles. He fell to the ground and started crying. The door opened behind him but he didn't turn to look.

"Look at the lil' boy. He be cryin' like a lil' baby. Hahaha," said a rough voice different from those the night before. Nick stood up and turned around. Suddenly infuriated by the taunting he rushed toward the man and tried with all his might to inflict the pain he felt in his heart at the moment. But all his blows didn't phaze the man at all.

"Whadaya expect ta do? Hahah." The man kneed Nick in the stomach. "Now, the Capin' be wantin' a word with ya. Get yer breath an' follow me." Nick gasped for air for a few seconds. The man grabbed Nick by the back of the shirt and forced him to start walking. After a few yards he was able to get his balance and started walking by himself. They walked down a hallway, up some stairs and down another hallway until they reached a door.

The man knocked on the door. "Ay Capin'! The runt be here fer ya." There was a clunk as the door latched opened and a tall, man dressed in what looked like a blood red suit like all the captains from tales of pirates stepped through. He bent down and smiled at Nick. The Captain's face was cleanly shaved except for a stylish gotee and his hair was dark brown, almost black, and went down to his neck.

"How are you doing this morning, son?" Nick stood silent. Too afraid to answer. "What is the matter with you boy? I'm an important man. The least you can do is greet me."

"H-h-h-hi." Nick managed to get it past his lips.

"Are you afraid of me son?" Nick nodded as a tear slipped out of the corner of his eye. "Hahahahaha. Now why would you fear me? I have given you a bed and the opportunity to become a greater man than you ever could have been back in your sad little town. Here, step into my cabin and I'll explain more. You're excused Henry." The man that guided Nick to The Captain took his leave. The two that were left walked into the room.

"Now, you see that? That was respect. On my ship, you give me your full respect and I'll treat you with respect. Disrespect my rules and I'll have you walk the plank. I'm not a bad guy, you'll find. In this particular field of work you need to be tough so don't expect anyone to show emotion. As you can probably guess you are now a member of my crew on my pirate ship: The Nevenger.

"The men that picked you up last night were three of the ten other men on the crew, excluding myself. They are some tough hearted deck hands but loyal to the end. If you follow your orders and help them out they will accept you and I highly recommend you do so or you may not wake up one morning. Do you understand what I'm telling you?" Nick stared blankly at The Captain.

"You're a pirate now, son. Aboard the most feared ship this side of the world and you best respect the position you are now in. Do you understand me?" Nick nodded slowly.

"Good. Now go find yourself some shoes from what was pillaged last night and head up to the deck. I'll meet you up there."

"H-h-ho-ok," Nick agreed and turned around and walked out the door.

***

Chapter 2:

A couple years passed and Nick began to adopt the ways on board The Nevenger. He became a means of entertainment for the crew as he did stupid stunts like climbing the mast, back flips into the ocean, and mocking impressions of all his friends on the ship. He would scrub the deck and help with general maintainence of the ship because he could fit into all those small dark places the crew couldn't.

The Captain kept track of Nick's growth and taught him the ways of the sea, the ways of pirates, and, most importantly, the ways of pokemon battling. He forced Nick to practice battling with a couple of his spare pokemon and saw the potential Nick had that only grew as he aged.

Nick was starting to grow out of his boyhood and The Captain knew what had to be done. It was every pirate's initiation into manhood to catch his first pokemon. Wether it be through plundering an innocent person's pokeballs or fighting one in hand to hand combat. The ship was near a small archipelago and this seemed the perfect place for his youngest deck hand to become a man.

***

The Captain knocked on Nick's cabin door. "Nick, get your lazy out of bed. I need to talk to you."

Nick grumbled to himself as he rolled out of bed. He grabbed some dirty pants and pulled them up, slid a button up shirt over his arms but did not button it up, and ran his hands back and forth through his hair to try and get it in some sort of order and a vain attempt to wake himself up.

"What's up Cap'n?" Nick said as he opened the door. The Captain stood there with two other crew members standing behind him. "What's with the welcome wagon? Am I getting breakfast in bed?"

"No. Now shut up." One of the crew members socked Nick right in the face. His body fell to the ground with a moderate thud. The men picked him up and carried him off.

***

There was the distinct taste of salt and sand in Nick's mouth. Water could be heard sloshing on a beach a few yards from where he laid. Nick sat up and rubbed his face. God that hurt. Why did they have to punch me? They know I love the beach. If I didn't like those guys so much I'd kick their . He could see the boat anchored out in the distance and wondered what was going on.

There was a bottle shoved in the sand a few feet from where Nick was sitting. He leaned over, picked up the bottle and pulled out the cork stopper. To his disappointment there was no rum in it, only a peice of paper. After some struggle, several curse words, finding a coconut, some slamming, a newly broken coconut, finding a large rock and several swings of the bottle, Nick fished out the note out and opened it.

Nick,

As you may know you are now 16 and becoming a man. It is time for you to prove it by catching your own pokemon and surviving a night on the island. There is a pokeball around you somewhere, look for it. We will return for you tomorrow morning. Good luck.

-The Captain

Nick rolled up the peice of paper and stuck it in his pants pocket. God dammit. It's gonna be cold tonight. Better work on finding that pokeball. It's gonna be tough to get through this by myself. He looked around for the pokeball that was supposed to be nearby. Nothing that looked like the red and white pokeballs The Captain had were in sight. After an hour of digging through beach sand Nick had given up hope.

"THIS SUCKS!" Nick yelled trying to let the crew hear, even though he knew they couldn't. "Why did you have to steal my only freaking pokeball! You all suck!" It was times like this that he remembered back to when these people that he called friends took him away from his loved ones and home. He had never really forgiven them but he didn't have much choice. They were his family now wether he liked it or not.

In anger Nick walked up to where the jungle started and picked up some rocks. He started chucking them as far into the ocean as he could trying to hit the ship. A couple of handfuls later he picked up a small black rock. Instantly he realized that this wasn't a rock. Looking down into his hands Nick saw a pokeball unlike anything he saw before. It was pure black on bottom and top with a small ring of gold around the split. On the top there was a white skull and cross bones. With a smile on his face, Nick placed the ball in his pocket and set off into the jungle.

It was now almost 3pm and Nick was starting to get hungry. He poked around with some plants and finally found a tree with bananas growing from it. Too tall to reach... Too skinny to climb... How am I going to get them down? Like in most situations of trouble, Nick started throwing stuff at the problem. Searching the ground he found a couple rocks and a few sticks. Unfortunately, most of the stuff missed its mark or just bumped off the fruit.

One final rock and then I'm moving on. All the big rocks in the area had been relocated by Nick's missed tosses. So, he headed over through some bushes looking for some of his lost rocks. Halfway through a shrub he heard a rustling in a nearby bush. Nick stopped in his tracks. He moved some leaves to get a better view of what was moving around.

Poking at the ground with a leek was a little duck. It looked like it was trying to annoy a worm into leaving its earthy home. Nick bent down and tried to crawl closer to it. Luckily this little Farfetch'd was very intent on annoying a poor worm. Nick had crawled up right behind it and then reached out and grabbed the duck's feet.

Farfetch'd flipped out. "SQWAK! FAAAAAAR! FEEEEEEETCHD!!!" The bird started flapping it's wings furiously trying to get away. Nick held strong and wouldn't let it go. Quickly it figured it wasn't fleeing that easily. Farfetch'd turned it's attention toward Nick and, with leek in hand, started wailing on his previously punched face.

"OOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!" Nick yelped in pain as blow after blow landed on his bruised cheek but he held on tight. In all his years of battling on The Nevenger he had never seen a pokemon like this. This must be a really rare and strong pokemon. It's got to be way better than anything on the ship. I'm not letting it go

"Give up Duck! You are coming with me!"

"FAAAAARRRRRRR!" The bird smacked him again but Nick could tell it was starting to get tired. The blows stung but they were getting less and less forceful. The struggle lasted for 40 minutes when finally Farfetch'd fell over in exhaustion.

"Ha! Look who has more stamina! You are so mine!" Nick stood up and reached into his pocket. The pokeball was gone! The smile of satisfaction that was on his face disappeared instantly. In a furious manner he searched the ground for his little black pokeball. Farfetch'd just laid there panting, unable to move, but still managed to let out a bit of a laugh at the failure he was seeing.

"You shut up! A HA! Found it!" Nick stood up, pokeball in hand. "Now how do I get you in here? The Captain never taught me how to catch a pokemon..." He walked over to Farfetch'd and touched the ball to its head. Farfetch'd weakly knocked away Nick's hand.

"Why isn't this working?!" Farfetch'd laughed again. "You know what. You keep laughing and I'm going to pelt you with this stupid ball." The duck laughed again. "Alright, you asked for it." Nick chucked the ball at Farfetch'd. It bounced off a lot more than it should have and stopped in mid air. It opened up and a red beam of light reached out and attached to the weak bird. The light returned to the ball, it closed and fell to the ground. The ball shook twice and then opened up again. Farfetch'd popped out of the light on its feet and fell over again. Still exhausted.

"DAMMIT! Stay in there will you?!" Nick walked over to the ball and picked it up. After a second toss, Nick jumped on the pokeball and held it closed with all his might. After several shakes the button flashed and Farfetch'd was his.

"Haha! In your face! I totally caught you and there is nothing you can do about it!" Nick jumped around and did a little dance in his victory. His stomach gurgled and he remembered he was hungry.

"Dang. I forgot I still haven't got those bananas down. Wait! I have a flying pokemon now! He can fly up and get them for me!" Nick smiled at his genius idea. He walked back to the banana tree and pulled out his pokeball. He pressed the button and tossed it onto the ground just like every time before on the ship. Farfetch'd popped out and fell over.

"Right... you're still tired from our little struggle."

"Far..." Farfetch'd let out, exacerbated.

"Well, I'm really hungry but I can't get those bananas down. If I get that worm that you were looking for and let you rest up, will you help me up?"

"Far..." It nodded a bit.

"Don't go running off while I'm out." Nick stood up and walked off. After a while he came back, arms covered in mud up to the elbow. Farfetch'd sat up.

"This little bugger though he could out dig me. I proved him wrong. Ha! Here you go." He tossed the worm to Farfetch'd who caught it in its mouth.

"So... what kinda pokemon are you anyways? I've never seen anything like you."

"Farfetch'd?" The duck bent its head sidewise while muching on the worm.

"Farfetch'd huh? You seem like a tough little guy. I'm Nick. I'm a pirate aboard the ship The Nevenger. You are too now, I guess. Hope you are ok with that."

"Far." The bird smiled.

"Ha. If you keep getting food I bet you'll be happy. Anyways, by catching you I am now a man. So, I have to be extra tough and so do you. I know you are though. Those smacks to the face really hurt. Ok, you think you can go get those bananas for me?" Nick pointed to the top of the tree.

"Fetch'd!" It nodded, put its leek in its beak, and flew to the top of the tree. It landed on top of the bananas and nestled in.

"Oh you are not taking a nap! Get me a banana dammit!" Farfetch'd turned its head away. "You are so getting punched when you get down here."

"Far," the bird sqwaked looking back down from the bananas.

"You're right. Threaten won't get you to help me. GAH! That's all I'm good at though! Fine, you get me a banana and I won't punch you. Sound better?" Farfetch'd shook its head.

"DAMMIT! Fine, I'll let you have a couple if you get them down for me." Farfetch'd perked up to this idea. It stood up, grabbed its leek and started banging on the stem of the bundle of bananas. After a few good whacks, the bundle fell and Farfetch'd flew down.

"As promised, here is your banana." Nick handed three to his new pokemon. Farfetch'd held them with a puzzled look on its face. "What? Can't peel them yourself?" Farfetch'd shook his head no.

"Here. If you have never had one before, you are going to be in for quite a shock. They are pretty tastey." Nick handed his open banana to Farfetch'd.

"Fetch'd!" The duck took a bite out of the fruit and smiled.

"Ha. I think we are going to be good friends, you and me. What do you think?"

"FAR!"

***

Chapter 3

*SMACK*

"OW! What was that?!" Nick opened his eyes and rubbed his face. Farfetch'd was standing on his chest, staring him in the face. "What? You get up way too early. You know that?" Nick closed his eyes in an attempt to fall back asleep.

"Faaaaaaar..." The duck was rubbing its feet back and forth. Trying to get his new owner to wake up.

"WHAT?!" Nick sat up suddenly launching Farfetch'd out the front of the make shift shack they set up the night before. "AH! I'm sorry!" Nick climbed out to help up his new companion.

"Fetch'd..." It had landed on its back and sat up.

"Sorry about that. Getting out of bed isn't my favorite time of day. How about we go get some breakfast?" Farfetch'd nodded in approval and flew up and landed on Nick's shoulder.

"What do you want for breakfast? There are only coconuts, bananas and bugs on this island. And I am NOT eating worms. ...Again. I don't care how persuasive you are." Farfetch'd looked around for a bit, took off and flew over the top of a tree and out of Nick's sight.

"NO! Where are you going?" Nick chased after his duck. Darting around trees and bushes, looking up to the sky for signs of his pokemon. "Dammit all... I lost my pokemon. Now The Captain will never think I'm really a man." Nick sat down and leaned against a tree. He put his head is his hands and thought about what will happen when the crew comes to pick him up. My face is still really sore... I don't know how many punches I could take. After a few minutes, he heard the sound of wings flapping overhead.

"Farfetch'd?! Is that you?!" Almost instantly his new companion flew through the canopy and landed near Nick's feet. "What is that in your mouth? Is that... breakfast cereal? Where did you get this?"

"Far farfetch fetch'd farf far. Farfet farf far fetch'd feeeeeetch'd farf far. Farfetch'd fetch'd farf farfet far fet fetch'd fetch." All the while it was drawing out indecernable squiggles in the dirt with its leek.

"Ok..." Nick looked a bit unsure about his Farfetch'd communication skills but decided cereal would be nice. After finding and opening a couple of coconuts they sat down to some bowls of cereal in coconut milk.

"Well this sure was a nice way to start the day. Thanks Farfetch'd." Nick turned and patted his duck on the head. "We should get back to the beach so we can wait for The Captain to come pick us up. Want to go back into your pokeball?"

*SMACK*

***

A boat pushed ashore as Nick stepped out from the shade of a palm tree.

"Took you guys long enough. Where did you learn to row? The south Pacific? Haha. Hey guys how was your night?" Nick stepped up to the crew that had come to get him.

"We be fine mate. How's about yerself? It ain't easy been alone on a island by yer lonesome." There was some chuckling from the other guys.

"I got along fine. Caught me a pokemon with the pokeball I found. See!" Nick held out his black pokeball.

"What?! We took away yer pokeball when The Captain had his back turn'd. None of us thought ya were ready fer bein' an adult. Looks like we be in the wrong on this one. That is a mighty fancy pokeball though. You musta caught one tough pokemon with it." The crew looked embarresed for half a second then put on their cold faces like usual.

"Well, I guess I don't mind. I did what The Captain wanted and now he'll be extra proud of me." Nick smiled big at his triumph over the others. If they stole my pokeball I wonder where this pokeball came from... He climbed into the boat with the others and helped shove off.

***

Nick stepped on to the deck with a triumphant smile on his face. The crew had been waiting for his and now everyone was on their feet. The Captain stepped through the small crowd and stood in front of Nick.

"How was your stay on your island?"

"It was awesome! I was pretty mad when I couldn't find a regular pokeball on the beach. But I found this special one and caught my very own super awesome pokemon!" Nick reached in his pocket and produced the black ball.

"The guys said they stole the regular one because they didn't think I was ready to become a man. Punishment is in order!" Nick pulled out an air sword and pretended to start stabbing the men that had just finished putting away the small boat. The crowd roared out in laughter. Nick dropped his invisble sword and turned back to look at The Captain.

"Every, show Nick your pokeballs." The crew pulled out a bunch of identical pokeballs to Nick's. "Show him what you got." The crew called out there pokemon at once. Suddenly in front of Nick was a Pelliper, a Machamp, a Swellow, a Kingler, a Walrien, a Cloyster, a Feraligatr, an Octillery and a Floatzel.

The pokemon moved to the side to make room for The Captain. "Go Kromm." He tapped the button on the ball and out of the resulting red light emerged a Marowak with a scar down the right side of its face.

"We all have pokemon from our initiation into manhood. Kromm here was a little Cubone when I was about your age. We have grown through a lot over all the years. He is my closest friend. We have been keeping this a secret from you for quite some time. Now let's see what pokemon you caught yourself."

"Ok. I have never seen it before and I know it'll become super strong. Just like me! Farfetch'd go!" Nick tossed his pokeball out onto the deck. As the red light disappeared Farfetch'd was left standing next to all the other pokemon.

The crew burst out laughing at the sight of the little bird. Next to all the big pokemon Farfetch'd looked even smaller and wimpier than usual. "Whatcha gonna do with that wimpy little thing?!" bursted out through the laughter.

"HEY! DON"T PUT HIM DOWN LIKE THAT! FARFETCH'D IS REALLY STRONG!!" Nick rubbed his face remembering the beating he took yesterday. "I'll prove it! Someone battle us and I'll show you how strong he is!"

The Captain, who had stood silently while the crew was laughing, smirked a bit. "Boris! You battle Nick and show him what it means to be a real battler. No more of the going easy stuff so he can learn the ropes. All out or you walk the plank. Both of you. The rest of you call back your pokemon and make room."

In a flash all of the pokemon that had been on deck except Farfetch'd, Marowak and Floatzel. Boris stepped toward the bow of the ship as the rest of the crew moved to the railing on either side of the ship. Nick was standing directly across from Boris with about 20 feet between them.

"A'right, since ye be the younga' of us. I'll let ya get tha first go."

Nick felt a massive sinking feeling in his stomache. He didn't know any of Farfetch'd's moves. "Oh crap! We never practiced battling on the island." The crew burst out laughing. Nick looked around and then down at his feathered companion. "It doesn't matter! We are so strong we can win no matter what! Just watch!" Nick's words just made the crowd laugh harder.

"Come on Farfetch'd! Use Slam!" Farfetch'd got a determined look in its face and grabbed its leek. He started to waddled over to the Floatzel. The crowd was laughing its guts out at the sight. Upon reaching Floatzel, Farfetch'd brought its wing back in preperation for the initial blow.

"Bruce! Dodge it! Jump into the ocean!" With lighting speed Floatzel jumped into the air as Farfetch'd's leek swung. The big water pokemon landed in its element. "Ha, this battle be as good as dun."

"Farfetch'd! Fly out there and get ready for a Peck attack!" Farfetch'd looked back at Nick with a look of Why are you doing this to me? in its face. "Don't give me that look. Do you want to be the laughing stock of the entire ship? Put in some effort would you?"

"FAR!" Farfetch'd was determined. He put the leek in his beak and took to the sky with suprising agility. There was a lull in the laughter surrounding the battle.

"That's more like it Farfetch'd! Let's find that Bruce-thingy." Nick climbed up a rope ladder to get a better view into the ocean. "Where did it go? Do you see it Farfetch'd?" The bird started circling above a spot just off the bow.

"Bruce! Aqua Jet that bird out o' the sky!" In a blast of water the hidden Floatzel launched toward Farfetch'd.

With a gut instinct Nick yelled out, "Do a barrel roll!" Farfetch'd tried to avoid the attack but was not fast enough to avoid the blast entirely. Floatzel's attack hit Farfetch'd's tail and caused it to tumble out of the sky. "Farfetch'd! NO! Try and recover!" There was some signs of an attempt to follow orders but the tumbling ball of feathers landed on the ocean surface. Bruce splashed back into the sea.

"Come on Farfetch'd get up!" Farfetch'd rolled over and sat up in the water and started to paddle around, much like any duck would enjoy. "Ha! That's the spirit! Now take off and we'll try and get in an attack!"

"FETCH'D!" The duck flapped its wings quickly and started to take off from the water. It quickly climbed to altitude.

"Ok Farfetch'd! Pick him out again but don't fly over head for so long!" After some quick searching Farfetch'd pointed out the Floatzel.

"Bruce, let's end this. Aqua Jet one more time!" Boris laughed a bit, sure that he had won.

"You know what's coming Farfetch'd! Circle around and tag him with a Slam!" Farfetch'd saw a dot under water that was growing larger. He quickly flapped hard to his right and out of the way of the Aqua Jet. Bruce flew straight up past its target. This through off Floatzel who flailed a bit in mid air, not used to missing its mark and was soon flying over the heads of the watching crowd. Farfetch'd pulled out its leek and wound up for a serious slam.

Floatzel was falling head first and the leek landed right on Bruce's snout. This sent the Floatzel into a front flip and it landed hard on the deck of the ship. The crowd was in awe.

"BRUCE! NO! Are you ok?!" Boris wanted to rush to his pokemon's side but didn't want to forfeit the match. "Can you get up?"

"Floa..." Bruce tried to roll onto its stomache but its arms gave out on it and it drifted into unconsciousness. The crowd was silent. Bruce was the weakest of the group. It wasn't unusual for it to lose but this situation was quite different.

"NO WAY! We won Farfetch'd! Get over here!" Farfetch'd b-lined for Nick from its flight overhead.

*SLAM*

Nick was plowed into the deck but had a huge smile on his face. "You did it! And we haven't even trained yet!"

"FETCH'D!" The duck returned the smile.

The Captain smiled. "Ha, that was quite suprising Nick. Bruce isn't the strongest but I thought he'd dispatch you pretty easily. Only one other person has won their first battle with their own pokemon."

"Who was that?" Nick's face turned from grinning to puzzled. Farfetch'd cocked its head to look at The Captain as well.

***

To Be Continued! =P